chocolate and child slavery: an abolitionistâ€™s guide

Chocolate and Child Slavery:

An Abolitionist’s Guide

© 2010 TheMarginalized.com / All Rights Reserved

2 The Problem Over 80% of the world's chocolate comes from small farms in West Africa, and un-fortunately, many of those farms are using child slaves - in particular, the cacao-rich country Ivory Coast. The problem made international news in 2001, and the large chocolate companies promised to remove slavery from their supply chain by 2005, then 2008. But 2005 and 2008 came and went, without evidence of any significant changes being made.

How It Happens

Child cocoa slaves are trafficked into West Africa from neighboring countries. Sometimes traffickers promise the boys money, bicycles, and a chance to give their parents a better life. Sometimes the boys' families knowingly sell them. But the boys arrive on farms to find these promises broken. Instead of a better life, they are thrown in small huts and forced to work against their wills for no pay. These boys have never tasted chocolate and most of them do not even know what chocolate is. They sleep on wooden planks and endure brutal beatings when the bags of beans are too heavy for their bodies’ small frames. The cacao beans these child slaves harvest get mixed together with other beans from around the world. By the time you bite into that delicious fudge brownie, slave beans and free beans have been blended too many times to know which chocolate is tainted with the blood of child slaves.

Why?

The problem has complex causes. Extreme poverty and low pay from the large chocolate companies force many farmers to cut costs to an extreme in order to sur-vive. Corrupt government systems interfere with prosecution and determent of traf-fickers. And consumers demand the cheapest goods possible.


3 The Solution

Fortunately, the solution is much simpler than the causes, and you don’t have to be a politician, social worker or lawyer to be a part of it. If we consumers would change our spending habits to reflect a hatred of the child slave trade, cacao farmers would stop trafficking young people. That is what Fair Trade and Slave-Free chocolate can do. By buying certified Fair Trade or Slave-Free products, consumers can know that none of the chocolate they eat is coming from farms that benefit from child slavery. The more that educated consumers demand a change in their chocolate's supply chain, the more larger com-panies will start to pay attention. In addition, many Fair Trade and Slave-Free brands put their profits back into the ca-cao farms and communities. Instead of supporting child slavery, one candy bar can support education and sustainable farming in nations where children are at a great risk of trafficking. Along with a change in buying habits, there is a lot more to be done to fight child slavery in the chocolate industry.

This Guide

The rest of this guide is meant to give chocolate-lovers and slavery-haters some creative ways to end child slavery and make a difference. You will find a guide to purchasing slave-free chocolate, informational fliers and cards to hand out, and ideas for parents and teachers, students, and people of faith.


4 Offenders

These chocolate companies are known to use slave-produced chocolate. M&M Mars Hershey's Kraft:(including Cadbury, Nabisco, Toblerone) Nestlé General Mills (including Häagen Dazs) Lindt and Sprungli (including Ghirardelli) Unilever (including Breyer’s Ice Cream and Ben & Jerry’s) Godiva and others

A Note on Organics

Some chocolate companies, such as Newman's Own Organics, use only organic chocolate in their products. Currently organic chocolate is only grown in the Central and South American regions, and not in West Africa, which makes all organic choco-late slave-free. In an attempt to eat only slave-free chocolate but not give up some of their favorite products, many people have chosen to eat organic chocolate. Organic chocolate is indeed slave-free, but the benefit of eating it does not reach the Ivory Coast, and thus does not encourage farmers in West Africa to stop using child slaves. On the contrary, it might do the opposite by limiting their incomes even more. Individual consumers should decide on their own whether to set the bar at organic chocolate or at Fair Trade or Slave-Free chocolate. Of these three options, TheMar-ginalized.com and many other abolitionist groups encourage the consumption of slave-free chocolate from the West African region when possible. Large companies like Nestlé will sometimes make one organic or slave-free product to help their marketing, but still sell almost entirely slave-made chocolate in all of their other products. This practice should be avoided completely. Companies should prove a true commitment to the cause of abolition, as opposed to using the problem of child slavery solely for marketing purposes.


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Other Slave-Free Chocolate Companies

The Best of Slave-Free Chocolate

These three companies all sell slave-free chocolate and give portions of the pro-ceeds back to the farming communities. They all offer chocolate bars, baking choco-late and hot cocoa, and are widely available in stores. Divine Chocolate A fair-trade chocolate co-op 45% owned by cacao farmers in Ghana http://www.divinechocolate.com Equal Exchange Partners with small farmer co-ops http://www.equalexchange.coop/cocoa Endangered Species Chocolate Partners with Nigerian co-op, Donates 10% of profits to Nigerian co-op villages & other partner programs http://www.chocolatebar.com

AlterEco Camino Cocoa

Cloud Nine/Tropical Source Coffee-Tea-Etc.

Dagoba Organic Chocolate Deans Beans

El Rey Frontier Cooperative Green and Black's

Health by Chocolate

Green and Black's Health by Chocolate

Malagasy Rapunzel

Sweet Earth Chocolates Terra Nostra Organic

Theo Chocolate Whole Foods (Private Label)

Vital Choice and more!


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Slave-free chocolate bars, baking cocoa, and hot chocolate mixes are all readily available. Wide variety at grocery stores and the growth of the internet make abolition much easier. The following locations are a good place to start, but there are many other places that sell delicious, slave-free chocolate.

Your neighborhood grocery store Usually in a distinct section on the candy aisle Look for the products on the previous page, or Check for Fair Trade or Slave-Free stamps on the labels Whole Foods Carries fair-trade, organic and slave-free chocolates Find a location near you at http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com Global Exchange The leading online supplier of fair-trade products http://www.globalexchangestore.org Amazon.com Sells organic and fair-trade chocolate; search by product or brand http://www.amazon.com

Where to Buy Slave-Free Chocolate


7 Ideas for Everyone After switching to ethically-produced chocolate, there are still many things everyone can do to help stop child slavery on cacao farms.

Writing to the Chocolate Companies Writing to the companies that allow slavery to continue is one of the most important things you can do. That is why we’ve included a list of contacts at the end of this guide to help you get started (see Appendix A). Contact your favorite chocolate companies, restaurants, ice cream stores, bakeries, and caterers and ask them if they use chocolate produced by slaves. Some of the smaller shops and even large restaurants might not have any idea that child slaves are used in chocolate production. Make them aware, and ask them to start using chocolate made without slavery. For larger chocolate companies, demand that slaves stop being used in their supply chain and ask for written verification that they do not use slavery in their chocolate. Make sure they know that you and your friends will not buy their product for your-selves or your own children until they can guarantee the freedom of the children who harvest their product.

Ideas for Everyone

Eat only slave-free chocolate, and make sure to tell people why.

West African cacao farms often grow coffee as well. Buy ethically-grown coffee (like Fair Trade or Slave-Free) to ensure even further that child slavery does not continue in the region

Join an abolitionist group in your area. Use Appendix B and/or search engines to get started.

Support groups that want to end child slavery on chocolate farms by following them through social networking like Facebook and Twitter and reading their blogs (see Appendix B).


8 Ideas for Parents

Bake slave-free goodies with your kids. Pass them around to your neighbors, and let them know that these treats are slave-free. We’ve included a postcard and flyer to use (see Appendix C).

Write to the chocolate companies together. Children can write their own letters ex-plaining why, as children, they don’t want to eat chocolate that has been farmed by children who don’t have a choice and who don’t get to go to school. Encourage children to draw how they feel in a picture and send that as well (see Appendix A).

Plan a slave-free bake sale for a school/club fundraiser, or encourage existing bake sales to become slave-free. Not for Sale and Equal Exchange have fund-raiser programs. See http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/chocolate-campaign/ and http://www.equalexchange.coop/equal-exchange-fundraising to learn more.

Give slave-free chocolate bars and treats as holiday gifts to classmates and friends. Don’t forget Halloween and Valentine’s Day! Include a postcard to explain why (see Appendix C).

Ideas for Teachers

Have your class come up with a letter to the biggest chocolate companies telling them why they think it is wrong to have children work on chocolate farms without getting paid. Have every student sign the letter and include a picture that shows how they feel (see Appendix A).

Teach your class what Fair Trade means and how Fair Trade products are differ-ent from normal products. Go to http://www.transfairusa.org to learn more.

Write a class letter thanking the farmers who work to make chocolate in ethical ways. You can find some of these farmers online. Kuapa Kokoo, a co-op in Ghana that supplies and partially owns Divine Chocolate, is a good place to start. Find them at http://www.kuapakokoo.com

Have an arts and crafts project about chocolate and how chocolate should be made without slavery.


9 Ideas for People of Faith Pray about this issue privately and at events.

Ask clergy to pray about it as part of the service.

Have a slave-free chocolate event, in which you serve slave-free baked goods and hand out cards or fliers with more information (see Appendix C).

Start serving fair trade coffee instead of the regular. Equal Exchange offers whole-sale prices for faith-based organizations to use after services and for fundraising. Learn more at http://www.equalexchange.coop/interfaith-program. Place a flier or card inside church bulletins (see Appendix C).

Encourage your group’s outreach, service or missions committee to begin supporting the abolitionist movement financially and with volunteers (see Appendix B).

Ideas for Students Find out where the dining hall chocolate is coming from. If it is not slave-free, start a student and faculty petition asking for slave-free chocolate. Perhaps the dining halls could start selling the goods that are made with chocolate for a small fee, so that costs don’t go up.

Bake slave free chocolate and offer free handouts about chocolate and child slavery (see Appendix C). If your school doesn’t allow handing out baked goods, sell them for a small price or use packaged chocolate. Start an abolitionist organization on campus. Organize a protest. Throw a slave-free fondue party.


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Appendix A

Contact the Chocolate Companies

Contact Nestlé http://www.nestleusa.com/Public/ContactUs.aspx 800 N. Brand Blvd. Glendale, California 91203 United States 818-549-6000 Contact Hershey http://www.hersheys.com/contactus/contact-us-date.asp 100 Crystal A Drive Hershey, PA 17033 717-534-6799 1-800-468-1714 Contact M&M Mars http://www.mms.com/us/legal/feedback.jsp 6885 Elm Street McLean, Virginia 22101 United States 703-821-4900 800-627-7852 Contact Kraft (owns Cadbury,Toblerone) http://www.kraftfoodscompany.com/Contacts/contact-us.aspx http://www.cadbury.com/Pages/ContactUsNew.aspx 389 Interpace Parkway, Parsippany, New Jersey 07054-1198 1-847-646-2000 1-973-909-2000

Contact Godiva http://www.godiva.com/customer/talk.aspx [email protected] 355 Lexington Ave., 16th Fl. New York, NY 10017 1-800-9-GODIVA 212-984-5900 Ghirardelli http://www.ghirardelli.com/about/contact/ 1111 139th Avenue San Leandro, CA 94578-2631 1-800-877-9338 Unilever (owns Breyers, Klondike, Good Humor, and Ben & Jerry's) http://www.unilever.com/resource/Contactform/index.aspx [email protected] 800 Sylvan Ave Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632-3201 201-894-4000 Also consider contacting: Your local grocery store Your favorite restaurants Your favorite ice cream shop

Your favorite bakery


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Appendix B

Abolitionist Organizations

TheMarginalized.com News and discussion relating to forced mi-gration and the longing for home http://themarginalized.com Not for Sale Full of practical ideas and opportunities for anyone interested in the abolition movement http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/ Not for Sale’s Chocolate Campaign A great way to fundraise and advocate by using slave-free chocolate http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/chocolate-campaign/ Stop Modern Slavery A helpful resource for grassroots organizers http://www.stopmodernslavery.org/ End Slavery Now A site full of resources to help you learn more about modern-day slavery http://www.endslaverynow.com/ International Justice Mission A human rights organization that aims to provide justice for victims of slavery http://www.ijm.org/ Shared Hope International Provides rescue and rehabilitation for vic-tims of sex trafficking http://www.sharedhope.org/index.asp Polaris Project A comprehensive anti-slavery organization http://www.polarisproject.org/

Slave Free Chocolate Devoted to ending child slavery in the chocolate industry http://www.slavefreechocolate.org/ Anti-Slavery International A UK organization devoted to abolition Includes news and school resources http://www.antislavery.org/english/ Free the Slaves An abolitionist group doing field work and research http://www.freetheslaves.net/ The Emancipation Network (T.E.N.) Prevents and restores trafficking victims through job creation and empowerment. A great place to shop. http://www.madebysurvivors.com/ Stop the Traffik Good resource for practical ways to get in-volved in the movement. http://www.stopthetraffik.org/ The Human Trafficking Project A blog with news about modern-day slavery http://traffickingproject.blogspot.com/ HumanTrafficking.Change.org A part of Change.org, and a great resource for news and updates http://humantrafficking.change.org/ Global Exchange Where slave-free consumers shop http://www.globalexchangestore.org/


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Appendix C

Printable Materials One of the biggest needs in the abolition movement today is increased aware-ness and activism by consumers. So to help you in advocating for slave-free chocolate, we have included a post-card and flyer for you to print and distribute however you see fit. The documents should print well in both color and black and white.

You can find both the postcard and flyer in separate PDF files at TheMarginalized.com/resources.

If you prefer to make your own materials, go for it! But please let us know what works well for you, so that we can share ideas and make a bigger impact. You can contact us at TheMarginalized.com/contact.


chocolate and child slavery: an abolitionistâ€™s guide

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